Once in a great while something happens that shows some basic goodness in mankind. Rare, but it happens. The Chilean miners’ situation has been one of those times.
The news outlets let up on – or moved lower on the page – the celebrity drivel and world mayhem to focus on a dramatic story of man’s concern for man. So somewhere deep down there’s a goodness in people everywhere? Almost. At least we aren’t forced to watch/read nonstop about the selfish side.
Problem is, the selfish stuff is still there, boiling under the surface, just waiting to break out again. So is mankind basically good or bad? Basically? Bad! Even religions that proclaim peace as the way to go recognize it.
The Judeo-Christian tradition teaching is the basically-bad one we come across most. The story is that we all lost our basic harmony with God when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and now we all must do something special in mind or action to get it back. If we ever do.
Meanwhile kids are selfish from the git-go, and have to be taught to share. And some of us never accept that simple sharing-is-best lesson.
So what is it? Obviously we all have a good streak and a bad streak. And it takes more cultivating, more effort to keep the good part on top. There is such a thing as good and evil. They’re both real.
Now, unfortunately, the world will simply go back to its struggle, with the bad side seeming to win. And the media will go back to reporting the bad stuff over the good stuff. But somebody or something will keep the better side alive. Despite overwhelming odds.
So does that settle the question? The real basic one about where man is good or bad deep down? No, of course not. Until the time that most religions teach is coming: a day of reckoning, when all scores are settled in favor of the good.
Why do we want to believe that? Because we couldn’t survive without at least some shred of hope.
